Vouchers

The Facts: Why Vouchers Don't Work

Fact #1: There's no link between vouchers and gains in student achievement

There's no conclusive evidence that vouchers improve the achievement of students who use them to attend private school. Nor is there any validity to claims that, by creating a "competitive marketplace" for students, vouchers force public schools to improve. In fact, the most dramatic improvements in student achievement have occurred in places where vouchers do not exist — such as Texas and Connecticut. Instead, those states and communities focused on teacher quality and extra help for students who need it. Where there is conclusive evidence is that investing more money in public education improves student achievement.

Fact #2: Vouchers undermine accountability for public funds

Private schools have almost complete autonomy with regard to how they operate: who they teach, what they teach, how they teach, how (if at all) they measure student achievement, how they manage their finances, and what they are required to disclose to parents and the public. Moreover, the absence of public accountability for voucher funds has contributed to rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in current voucher programs.

Voucher schemes drain taxpayer dollars from public schools, devastating state budgets. Arizona’s universal education savings account program called “Empowerment Scholarship Accounts” has decimated public education funding and fueled a one-billion-dollar state budget shortfall closed only with cuts to many essential public services.

Cheaper, more limited voucher schemes are sometimes peddled as an answer to this problem, but these plans inevitably balloon in spending over time, producing the same crises. Indiana launched vouchers with a $15 million budget and narrow purpose, but now projects spending over $600 million in 2024 largely to benefit well-off families already enrolled in private schools—an alarming and growing trend in voucher programs across the country.

If we’re serious about doing what’s right for every child’s future, let's do what works: support public schools so that every student has inviting classrooms, modern technology and textbooks, and class sizes that are small enough for one-on-one attention.  

Fact #3: Vouchers do not reduce public education costs

Actually, they increase costs, by requiring taxpayers to fund two school systems, one public and one private. The result is that public schools, which educate 90 percent of students, wind up with less funding. This leads to larger class sizes and fewer resources, such as textbooks, school nurses and counselors, lab equipment, and music and athletic programs.

Fact#4: Vouchers do not give parents real educational choice

Participating private schools may limit enrollment, and in many cases may maintain exclusive admissions policies and charge tuition and fees far above the amount provided by the voucher. Unlike public schools, private and religious schools can — and do — discriminate in admissions on the basis of gender, religion, sexual orientation, ability, behavioral history, prior academic achievement, standardized test scores, interviews with applicants and parents, and income.

Fact #5: Vouchers are rooted in segregation and perpetuate racism

Vouchers were first created after the Supreme Court banned school segregation with its ruling in Brown v Board of Education. School districts used vouchers to enable white students to attend private schools, which could (and still can) limit admission based on race. As a result, the schools that served those white students were closed, and schools that served black students remained chronically underfunded.   

By design, voucher programs operate with impunity and are not subject to any meaningful oversight, allowing the pattern of discrimination to continue today.  

Unlike public schools, private schools can (and some do) limit their admission based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and any other number of factors.  

Even for students who do make it through the gauntlet of a discriminatory admissions practice, racist rules such as banning afros can target students for discipline or expulsion with little recourse.  

Furthermore, vouchers rarely cover the full tuition, so families who were promised a better education are left footing the bill.   

Fact #6: Voucher programs give choice to private schools, rather than students and their families

Vouchers enable taxpayer-funded discrimination and strips vulnerable students of various protections and rights, as private schools are not bound by many key provisions of  civil rights such as those under Title VI, Title IX, most of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Every Student Succeeds Act.  

Students and their families are often not informed about protections they must give up when accepting a voucher. 

Private schools have no regulated discipline policies and students can be disciplined, counseled out, or excluded for a variety of reasons, leaving SWD especially vulnerable as a disability can be perceived as challenging behavior.  

A significant number of existing private school families jump at the opportunity for voucher eligibility, by obtaining superficial documentation to claim disability status. Consequently, students with real needs may be further crowded out by a voucher system. 

Even voucher programs that exclusively serve SWD fail to serve all SWD. Studies show that these programs tend to exclude students with more severe disabilities.